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The press release issued by the Home Office on 31 March 2025.

The UK has mobilised over 40 countries and organisations to launch an unprecedented global fight against ruthless people smuggling gangs.

The UK is spearheading the toughest ever international crackdown on organised immigration crime as the Prime Minister and Home Secretary host a landmark summit today (31 March).

The Organised Immigration Crime (OIC) Summit brings together over 40 countries, including the United States, Vietnam, Iraq, and France, to unite behind a new approach to dismantle people smuggling gangs and deliver on working people’s priorities for secure borders.

This is the first time the full range of factors driving illegal migration, from the supply chain in small boats to anti-trafficking measures, illicit finance and social media advertising, have been explored at a global summit of this scale.

The summit will also see representatives from Meta, X and TikTok discuss how to jointly tackle the online promotion of irregular migration.

Through the summit, the government will use all available levers at its disposal to push forward progress in bringing gangs to justice, tackle the global threat of organised immigration crime and protect vulnerable people from exploitation.

To back this drive, the Home Secretary has today announced £30 million of funding going directly to high impact operations from the Border Security Command to tackle supply chains, illicit finances and trafficking routes across Europe, the Western Balkans, Asia, and Africa.

An additional £3 million will enable the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to increase its capacity to prosecute organised international smugglers and expand its international footprint to support the Border Security Command to pursue, disrupt and arrest those responsible for dangerous people smuggling operations.

This reflects the Prime Minister’s long-held view, informed by his work as Chief Prosecutor, that cross border cooperation is the foundation of tackling international gangs and securing Britain’s borders.

In remarks delivered later today, the Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, is expected to say:

This vile trade exploits the cracks between our institutions, pits nations against one another and profits from our inability at the political level to come together.

When I was the Director of Public Prosecutions, we worked across borders throughout Europe and beyond to foil numerous plots, saving thousands of lives in the process. We prevented planes from being blown up over the Atlantic and brought the perpetrators to justice.

I believe we should treat organised immigration crime in the same way.

I simply do not believe organised immigration crime cannot be tackled. We’ve got to combine our resources, share intelligence and tactics, and tackle the problem upstream at every step of the people smuggling routes.

The summit will deliver concrete outcomes across Europe, Asia, Middle East, Africa, and North America by strengthening international partnerships, enhancing intelligence sharing, and implementing targeted disruptions to Organised Immigration Crime networks.

As a direct result, we will be able to strengthen UK borders and security and create a more efficient and manageable asylum system, taking the burden away from housing, the NHS and schools, and giving hotels back to the local economy.

Speaking ahead of the summit, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said:

Smuggler and trafficking gangs make their money crossing borders so law enforcement needs to work together across borders to bring them down. Only a coordinated international response, across the whole irregular migration route, can effectively dismantle these networks.

The Organised Immigration Crime Summit is the first of its kind and will reinforce the UK’s position as a leader by securing international commitments to disrupt Organised Immigration Crime at every stage of the business model.

The summit demonstrates mine and the Prime Minister’s absolute dedication to disrupting the callous Organised Criminal Gangs, strengthening our borders and ultimately save countless lives.

The UK’s global leadership on this is issue is already delivering results. France has agreed to launch a unit of specialist officers who are mobile, highly trained and equipped to respond dynamically to prevent small boat launches.

Germany has committed to strengthen their laws against those who facilitate smuggling to the UK and a new UK-Italy taskforce is hitting people smugglers’ financial flows. After boosting the resources for the National Crime Agency to work with international law enforcement partners, they have seized 600 boats and engines since July.

Along with this, work continues at home through giving law enforcement tougher powers than ever to smash the smuggling gangs, ramping up removals to record levels and surging illegal working raids to end the false promise of jobs used by gangs to sell spaces on boats.

This comprehensive approach is a vital aspect of the government’s Plan for Change, with the threat from organised immigration crime increasing in scale and complexity.

Organised immigration crime spans multiple countries, nationalities, and criminal methodologies, with recent estimate of the total global income from migrant smuggling reaching $10 billion last year.

Criminal gangs headed by hundreds of kingpins are using sophisticated online tactics, the abuse of legitimate goods and services, and illicit financial networks to facilitate dangerous and illegal journeys which undermine border security and put thousands of lives at risk each year.

The summit will also examine the work of the government’s Joint Maritime Security Centre (JMSC) in supporting the US, by providing innovative space-based maritime surveillance capability to monitor and dismantle any vessels along Haiti’s north coast suspected to be involved in illegal immigration, illegal fishing activities and drug smuggling.

The JMSC is harnessing cutting edge technology and capabilities to provide 24 hour monitoring of UK waters and ensure our borders are secure, by using satellite to provide a better overall understanding of incoming threats to the Turks and Caicos Islands. The UK government is working with our partners in Turks and Caicos to support and protect the Island from irregular migration.

This collaboration demonstrates the UK government’s commitment to deploying advanced capabilities against illegal migration while protecting overseas territories.

There has also been a series of major arrests of smuggling kingpins, including:

• arrests linked to a major Syrian organised crime group responsible for smuggling at least 750 migrants into the UK and Europe
• the arrest of a Turkish national suspected of being a huge supplier of small boats
• the conviction of 2 men in Wales who ran a smuggling ring moving thousands of migrants across Europe
• the arrests in February of 6 men wanted in Belgium over their suspected involvement in a major people smuggling ring

These arrests come alongside the NCA working with the authorities in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq for the first time, to facilitate the arrests of 3 men linked to a Kurdish people smuggling organised crime group, as well as an increase in the takedown of social media accounts linked to people smugglers.

The press release issued by the Home Office on 30 March 2025.

In the latest move to restore order to the asylum and immigration system, the government will introduce tough new laws to clamp down on illegal working.

Companies hiring people in the gig economy will now be legally required to carry out checks confirming that anyone working in their name is eligible to work in the UK, bringing them in line with other employers. These vital checks, which take just minutes to complete, confirm someone’s immigration status and allow them to legally work in the UK.

This means that for the very first time, employment checks will be extended to cover businesses hiring gig economy and zero-hours workers in sectors like construction, food delivery, beauty salons and courier services.

Currently, thousands of companies using these flexible arrangements are not legally required to check the status of these workers. This changes now.

Where businesses fail to carry out these checks, they will face hefty penalties already in place for those hiring illegal workers in traditional roles, including fines of up to £60,000 per worker, business closures, director disqualifications and potential prison sentences of up to 5 years.

Expanding illegal working checks will help level the playing field for the majority of honest companies who do the right thing. For example, Deliveroo, Just Eat and Uber Eats already voluntarily carry out checks to ensure their delivery riders are eligible to work.

Clamping down on illegal working forms a critical part of the government’s plan to strengthen the entire immigration system, restoring tough enforcement of the rules and undermine people smugglers using the false promise of jobs for migrants.

The announcement comes a day before the UK holds the first ever Organised Immigration Crime Summit, bringing together over 40 countries to agree unprecedented new international action to take down every aspect of criminal smuggling gangs’ tactics.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said:

Under our Plan for Change, we are restoring order to the asylum and immigration system by introducing tougher laws and bolstering enforcement action to tackle illegal working and stopping rogue employers in their tracks.

Turning a blind eye to illegal working plays into the hands of callous people smugglers trying to sell spaces on flimsy, overcrowded boats with the promise of work and a life in the UK.

These exploitative practices are often an attempt to undercut competitors who are doing the right thing. But we are clear that the rules need to be respected and enforced.

These new laws build on significant efforts to stop organised immigration crime and protect the integrity of our borders, including increasing raids and arrests  for illegal working and getting returns of people who have no right to be here to their highest rate in half a decade.

Claire Pointon, Managing Director, Just Eat UK and Ireland said:

Just Eat is committed to supporting high streets and communities by ensuring a fair and well-regulated rapid delivery sector. Preventing unauthorised work is key to this, which is why we’re strengthening our measures by introducing biometric checks to swiftly remove those without the correct authorisation to work in the UK. We welcome this decision from the Home Office to expand these requirements to other sectors.

A Deliveroo spokesperson said:

Deliveroo has led the industry in taking action to secure our platform against illegal working, developing our approach in close collaboration with the Home Office. We were the first to roll out direct right to work checks, a registration process, daily identity verification and now additional device checks for riders, including substitutes. We take our responsibilities extremely seriously and will continue to strengthen our controls to prevent misuse of our platform. We welcome the government taking action to ensure all businesses and sectors adopt the same standards.

An Uber Eats spokesperson said:

Uber Eats is fully committed to fighting illegal work and the criminal networks who are often behind it, including by introducing state of the art identity and document video verification technology and mandatory substitute registration. We welcome efforts to enable and enforce further controls, and create a level playing field across the sector.

The checks take minutes to complete, and the Home Office provide this free of charge, with businesses able to utilise digital ID verification technology to support the process. There is also support in place for employers with enquiries about the process.

The new laws further build on measures announced in November to equip Immigration Enforcement teams with new technology. From May, body worn cameras will be rolled out to officers on the front line tackling illegal working and organised immigration crime. Backed by £5 milllion, this will help officers collect evidence to support prosecutions and make sure exploitative businesses undermining our immigration system are held to account.

The new measures go alongside a ramp-up of operational action by Immigration Enforcement teams, who since July have carried out 6,784 illegal working visits to premises and made 4,779 arrests – an increase of 40% and 42% compared to the same period 12 months ago. In that time, 1,508 civil penalty notices have been issued.

This also follows wider measures within the legislation announced earlier this month to impose tougher restrictions on foreign criminals whose removal we are pursuing but we are presently unable to deport. This includes the use of electronic tags, night time curfews and exclusion zones. Breaching these conditions would be grounds for arrest and the individual could face imprisonment.

The measures will help ensure the Home Office maintains close contact with individuals and makes it very clear that they should not become established in the UK, as the intention remains to remove them when possible.

Tomorrow (31 March 2025), the Home Secretary will convene key government and law enforcement leads at the UK’s 2 day landmark international Organised Immigration Crime Summit.

This will include Immigration Enforcement, the Department for Business and Trade, the Gangmasters Labour Abuse Authority and the National Crime Agency, holding a roundtable to discuss the importance of shutting down illegal working and government’s ongoing surge in operational activity.

The summit will bring together leaders from across the globe, with the aim of securing international commitments to intensify efforts against organised immigration crime gangs.